


Shine Bright

by Chellodello



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Hit the Diamond spoilers, I promise this is not actually a song fic, fusion fic, well sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-22
Updated: 2016-05-22
Packaged: 2018-06-09 23:18:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6928264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chellodello/pseuds/Chellodello
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Peridot, you called Yellow Diamond a clod to her face and she still wasn’t even remotely interested in you, I highly doubt that you singing an earth song comparing yourself to her is going to make it any worse.”<br/>Or;<br/>Peridot is ready to pop her fusion cherry, Pearl gives the sickest burns this side of the galaxy and Lapis Lazuli just wants them to stop hanging out together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shine Bright

**Author's Note:**

> HEY GUYS ITS BEEN 6 MONTHS; DID YOU MISS MY PARTICULAR BRAND OF GARBAGE FICS YET?

There are a lot of things on earth that Peridot doesn’t understand; the inefficient use of fossilized carbon based life as fuel, the rigid normalization of a seeming ‘gender binary’, the lack of a single organized system of world government, the list goes on and on. But perhaps the most instantly jarring thing is just how freely humans used metaphor and simile to express creative thought.

Peridot by nature is a very direct gem; saying things as they were has always been how she’s gotten by. Most times her direct stance won her accolades on homeworld, giving her the opportunity over other peridots  to even come to earth. Other times her blunt assessments and turn of phrase has gotten her into trouble: all of it self inflicted.

While she was the first one to point out her objective reasoning and empirical stance, in the months since she was stranded on Earth she’s come to realize that she has a rather impressive range for creative thought as well as linear thinking. And while she wasn’t exactly quick to let go of the direct approach, getting by on as strange planet a planet as Earth often required non-traditional methods of coping and adaptation to say the least.

If the other peridots of homeworld could see her now she’d be considered a renegade free-thinker; a loose canon gem working off the grid.  But on Earth she was what Amethyst referred to as  _ ‘a hot mess. _ ’

Near the very top of the list of things Peridot doesn’t understand on earth, right below  _ ‘how can such archaic technology accomplish so much’  _ and just above  _ ‘why in the cosmos are they letting me stay here with them? _ ’ is ‘Human Music’.

It’s not as if music is unheard of on homeworld, it was just usually something reserved for the higher up gems. There isn’t really a lot of time to stop and compose music when you’re the overtaking worlds or at least maintaining the equipment to do so in her case.

But on Earth music is everywhere. If it isn’t playing overhead in stores and restaurants then it was being sung or hummed around the temple and barn. And the sheer variety of it; style, tempo, subject matter, literal, figurative, crude or emotional- it was a lot to get used to all at once. But Peridot is incredibly adaptive if she says so herself, she’s trying.

Of all the music Peridot hears an alarming amount of it comes from Pearl. 

On this particular day Pearl is in the kitchen doing dishes, the radiowave audio converter box is playing some song that she can only half hear over the sound of the running water. Peridot herself is lounging in the living room mentally going over the seemingly endless list of things they could be doing to get ready for the whatever homeworld had in store for them. Steven was a firm believer is taking breaks to rest their minds and spirits, much to Peridot’s dislike, and politely suggested she try taking a nap in the house to get her mind off things.

Unlikely.

This kind of down time is incredibly new to her and as much as she stubbornly vows to keep working on plans for when Yellow Diamond undoubtedly came to earth,, she finds herself forgetting her list and listening to Pearl hum.

Pearl’s voice is pleasant to listen to which isn’t all that surprising considering what pearls had been designed to do, not that Pearl was one to conform to homeworld’s expectations of what she should be.

Maybe it was something actually ingrained in her biogeological make up? Then again it was hard to imagine that Yellow Diamond’s pearl, so abrasive and yet demure to those stronger than her, was inclined to sing at all. Then was all the singing a crystal gem trait? Garnet had sung an entire 3 verse ballad on the ship once. Was Peridot going to start singing all the time? Was it only a matter of time before she started to use lyrics instead of reason to solve her problems?

For a moment she has a vision of them singing homeworld into submission, a thought is charming if not unlikely. No matter what Steven said, she doesn’t figure herself that good a singer, doesn’t think she has anything all that interesting to sing about.

The green gem is so engrossed in her own thoughts that she almost misses the song that Pearl is humming along to. Almost. “ — _ ght like a diamond.” _

At the mention of Diamonds, one can never been too careful these days, Peridot’s eyes snap open and she scrambles to the edge of the couch to stare at Pearl with a startled expression. The tall gem has turned off the faucet and is scrubbing the eating utensils with some manner of soft scouring pad, completely oblivious to Peridot’s overreaction. “ _ Shine bright like a diamond~♫ _ ”

“How can you say that?!”

Looking up from her dishes to meet her gaze Pearl dries her hands on a dish towel, which she then perfectly folds because of course she does, and mutes the radio. “Oh Peridot, I didn’t even realize you were still awake.”

It is a testament to how far they’ve come that Pearl isn’t even remotely affected by Peridot’s seemingly endless bouts of hysteria. “Don’t change the subject!”

“I wasn’t aware there was a subject.”

“You can’t just- just- sing that! You can’t just say that it’s- well it’s practically- you just can’t!”

The look Pearl sends her is a dead stare. “Peridot you’re not making an iota of sense.”

“Don’t sweet talk me with technological terms, we’re talking about that song you’re singing!”

“The song-OH! You mean the one on the radio,” She looks like she’s fighting the urge to laugh at Peridot’s look of sheer horror. “I honestly hadn’t even realised I was singing along to it, it’s been out for a while now. You don’t like it? I’m rather fond of it myself.” Her grin makes it rather obvious that she is aware of the chaos her song would have caused back on homeworld.

“The Diamonds-”

“I’ve spent a lot of time around Diamonds; it hasn’t much improved my opinion of them or what they think.”

It occurs to Peridot that it probably means nothing to Pearl to compare herself, even through some old Earth ballad, to a Diamond. And while Peridot has her own theories about how close to the Diamonds Pearl really was  — honestly doesn’t anyone ask questions about things around here — she clearly got some kind of pleasure out of disrespecting them even this far away from the Authority. 

Peridot knows that she’s a Crystal Gem now, that she doesn’t have to adhere to the standards set by homeworld, but it was still hard to erase a lifetime of respect she had had towards her once leader. Its was literally ingrained in her to think she was below, well most every gem really. To imply her worth to that for a Diamond….

“But-” Peridot can’t think of anything to say that could properly explain that no matter how much she’s come to like Earth, love it even, homeworld was a heavy mantle to shrug off. It would probably be with her forever.

Pearl must understand this, of all the gems she must understand this, and stops settles her with a soft look. “You’re adjusting to Earth so much better than I did at first, I suppose it’s easy to forget you’ve only been here a few months.” There’s a kitchen and a millenia of experiences separating them, but this feel as much like even footing and understanding as any.

“Is the rest of the song like full of such platitudes?” She finds herself asking, curiosity overcoming her upbringing. 

Pearl brings a hand to her chin and considers it, singing a few more bars of the melody from memory as she walks to the couch. “ _ So shine bright, tonight you and I. _ ” Peridot feels her face heat up at the way Pearl is looking at her with honest eyes as she sings. It feels an awful lot like she’s being compared to a Diamond as well. “ _ We’re beautiful like diamonds in the sky _ … yes I suppose the metaphor runs through the whole song.” Daintily she fold her legs and sits beside her. “It’s kind of ironic considering the circumstances.”

Ironic doesn’t seem to be a strong enough word. 

“Would you like to sing the rest with me?”

The green gem  makes a vague sound of distress. 

Pearl raises an eyebrow in amusement. “Peridot, you called Yellow Diamond a clod to her face and she still wasn’t even remotely interested in you, I highly doubt that you singing an earth song comparing yourself to her is going to make it any worse.”

Okay first, ouch. Second, fair enough. Peridot has noticed that ever since the ‘incident’, as she likes to call it, Pearl has made an effort to persuade her to do things by providing her with logical arguments to go with her emotional appeals and sadly both seem to have equal pull over her now. 

For a moment Peridot pictures herself pleading ignorance of the words to the song, but immediately forgoes the idea. Pearl was well aware of her eidetic memory at this point, she’d catch her in a lie and she’s trying to avoid that is at all possible.

“....I’m not ‘good’ at singing.” She uses air quotes to frame the word, an action she gleaned from watching old television shows when not working on the drill. “I lack what they call ‘talent’.” 

Pearl has the decency to look upset by her self assesment and quickly corrects her. “That's not true at all. Remember that nice song you sang to us around the campfire? The one where you announced you thought we were insane? If anything I’d say that you weren’t particularly good at  _ writing  _ songs rather than singing them.” She knows that Pearl means this as a compliment but it still stings. Garnet often said that Peridot was rude or that she lacked tact, whatever that was, but she was sure that Pearl was more brutally honest than she was most of the time.

The tall gem takes her silence as a soft yes and taps her foot in a metronome. _“Shine bright like a diamond~”_

“Pearl I don’t-”

_ “Shine bright like a diamond~” _

“We really don’t have to do this,  I was just asking a ques-”

Pearl doesn’t let her finish with her back-peddling, and instead fixes her with an encouraging look as she stands from the couch and holds out her hand for Peridot to take. _“Find light in a beautiful sea…”_

With a great huff Peridot stands and gives in. She might as well. The smile that lights up the tall gem’s face makes the imposition and chance of embarrassment worth it. _“I chose to be happy~”_ She rasps out, standing awkwardly in the middle of the floor of the beach house feeling incredibly uncomfortable. _“You and I?”_

Pearl grins. _“You and I.”_

_“We’re like diamonds in the sky.”_ They chime in time together. Peridot isn’t entirely sure of her voice and the merits of it, it sounds shaky and shrill to her ears, not exactly a pleasing sound. But combined with the lovely tone of Pearl’s voice it almost sounds...nice.

Emboldened by Pearl’s lack of laughing at her singing, she takes a great step towards Pearl and sings the next verse without prompting. “You’re a shooting star I see, a vision of ecstasy.” She makes an over the top bowing gesture, showing how hyperbolic she thinks the language of the song is, a small well intentioned mockery of the situation.

Really she should know better than to tease Pearl, even lightly.

Because the next thing she knows she has has taken her hand, pulled her out of her bow and is guiding her across the room with quick steps. Pearl winks at her and she can’t really explain it but her, unnecessary, heart increases its cadence in a way that sort of...tingled. For lack of a better word. 

_ “When you hold me — _ _”_ Pearl sings softly and Peridot shakily lets herself be flung away only to be pulled back, curled completely in the taller gem’s arms. 

It’s all Peridot can do to softly gasp the next line in the song. _“-I’m alive.”_

_“We’re like Diamonds in the sky.”_ Peridot’s head is a flutter of thoughts, yet it feels like she is thinking through a fog, trying to struggle with her realization, sing, and keep up when her partner silently prompts her to follow her lead: she does without question.

It’s amazing how much trust she could feel for one gem, a gem she hadn’t known all that long, a gem who had every right to have shattered her in the beginning. Honestly the trust she had in all the crystal gems was alarming, it had taken so little to challenge the way she had lived her entire life. 

On homeworld she had been nothing.

On Earth she felt like she could be anything, do anything, that maybe here on a special little rock in a not so peculiar solar system in an even less interesting galaxy she could be someone comparable to a Diamond. Was this what this silly earth song meant, finding something that made you feel bright inside,  _ someone  _ that could look at all your shortcomings and see a gem worthy defying a Diamond to protect?

She had thought Earth music to be largely unimportant and humorously hyperbolic but now she isn't so sure. 

Epiphany had, it occurs to Peridot that they’re both still singing, that her clumsy feet were syncing up to Pearl’s movements with few mistakes. They were dancing and Peridot only knows one reason for dancing. 

Her almost dance with Garnet had been riddled with awkwardness and nerves: she remembers tripping over her improvised limb-enhancers, battling fear and curiosity as she steeled herself for the implications of dancing with Garnet would mean; Fusion. 

Dancing with Pearl though is effortless. She doesn’t remember making the decision to dance, only that they were suddenly well, doing it. It feels like a natural conclusion to their interactions; following her lead in this is as easy as listening to her opinions on drill schematics or making a pair of lungs to breathe. 

For a moment she looks at her own hands in confusion, wondering how and when they ended up curled into the fabric of Pearl’s waist ornamentation. She can feel each sway of her bony hips with a startling intensity. She feels Pearl’s arms draped over her shoulders, fingers occasionally ghosting the line of her spine as she sets the tempo of their swaying. It should all be too much, she waits for the moment when it will feel too much.

It doesn’t come.

Peridot dares a look at Pearl’s face to see what she thinks of their impromptu dancing.

Her eyes are closed as if she too had gotten lost in the easiness of this; they’re definitely getting closer with each sidestep. Somehow amongst the swarm of feelings both emotional and tactical Peridot manages to keep singing along with her, providing harmonies when it seems appropriate.

_ “So shine bright, tonight you and I, we're beautiful like diamonds in the sky~” _

Oh stars they’re going to fuse. They’re definitely going to fuse. Peridot can’t see how they  _ can’t  _ fuse. 

But Peridot’s not afraid, this time she’s ready.

Despite all the taboos that homeworld had accredited to the act, the fusion she had seen on earth called for trust and comfort and closeness. This is as close as she had ever been to anyone, as open as she has ever been. She’s a terrible singer that was singing, a gem who had never seen the use of dance who was dancing, just a peridot who in the arms of a pearl felt as precious as a diamond.

Peridot closes her eyes and clutches Pearl’s hips tighter and swears she feel the edges of her form bleed into light, gives herself into the feeling, keeps singing with her partner all the way to the end. Together.

_ “Shine bright like a diamond, shine bright like a diamond…” _

She’s not afraid. 

But they’re not moving anymore and that is a little scary. Here it was. Here they were.

“Peridot?” She only hears Pearl’s voice as a murmur, but not in her head like she thought it would be.

“Are we….are we fused?” she whispers in a surprisingly quiet voice for someone who had just been belting out music moments prior. She wonders with a sort a giddy excitement about the kind of gem they would be together, she had thought that they’d just know who they were, but maybe it doesn’t work that way?

Pearl’s hands are suddenly clutching at her shoulders instead of draped over them and with a sickening certainty Peridot knows that she had been wrong. The small gem forces her eyes to open and they’re still in the living room, still the same gems they had always been. Separate.

“Fused?” Pearl is giving her a strange concerned look, the kind of look she gives Steven when she doesn’t understand what nonsense he’s saying. “Of course we’re not fused.” Peridot feel like an absolute idiot.

“But we were dancing and singing and I thought-” her throat clamps up and an unfamiliar stinging sensation pricks at her eyes. “I was ready…” She knew singing would lead to nothing but her embarrassment. The only balm her bruised pride could take was at least she had been right all along.

“Did- did you  _ want  _ fuse with me Peridot?” She can’t bare to look at her fellow gem in fear of seeing the expression that went along with her shocked tone. Peridot lets go of  Pearl’s waist and takes a hasty step backward out of her reach.

“This won’t happen again. I- Sorry.” Peridot just wants to escape to the barn with what little bit of dignity she could muster. If she was lucky maybe Lazuli would end her suffering and drown her. What a clod, getting caught up in some asinine earth song enough to think that anyone, let alone someone as luminous as Pearl, would want to fuse with her, could see her as anything remotely —

For the second time in little less than 10 minutes Peridot finds herself tugged into Pearl’s embrace as she moves to the floor so that they are closer to eye level. She still smells like the soap from her earlier dishwashing and she feels the saline water solution that drips from her eyes as she buries her face in her shoulder.  It’s not the worst thing to have happened to her, but it is confusing nonetheless. “You want to to fuse with me!”

“Well not while you’re leaking!” she screeches in retort because while she may be happy to be held this way she’s still very lost.  Pearl pulls back just a bit and the watery expression she wears is enough to give Peridot the bravado to ask again.“So we  were going to fuse?”

She shakes her head smiling, pink hair whipping around her round face with the action. “Of course not!” What she is saying is at such odds with the smile on her face that Peridot wonders if there was some kind of gas leak in the room.

“Then what are you crying about?!” Peridot yelps, face burning. She takes it all back, she’ll never understand this planet or the gems that called it home. 

“Because you wanted to you clod!” Pearl hugs her tightly before realising what she said and lets go. She laughs nervously .“Oh my, I can see why you say that so much, it has a ring to it. Liberating.”

Peridot narrows her eyes, officially, completely, and totally lost. “So we weren’t going to just fuse now?”

“Absolutely not.”

“But you’re happy that I wanted to?”

She’s looking at her like she doesn’t understand just what was giving pOeridot trouble understanding her very mixed signals. “Of course.”

“But-,” she sputters patience, as little as she has, spent from talking in circles.“-but why?!” Peridot has never been good at not understanding things with grace and this time is no exception. “You don’t make any sense, this whole thing doesn’t make sense! I First I’m wrong for being not wanting to fuse with Garnet and now I’m wrong for wanting to fuse with you?!”

To her credit, it looks like it takes every ounce of Pearl’s self control not to roll her eyes at the smaller gem’s theatrics but she manages it. Just barely. “When you tried to fuse with Garnet, you weren’t able to go through with it right?” 

“But I’m ready now!” Peridot retorts sharply. “And that was a long time ago.”

“Peridot it’s been two months.”

“Well it’s been a very eventful two months.”

Pearl can’t hold it in this time and rolls her eyes dramatically. “That’s it right there! Everything is a struggle with us.You weren’t ready to fuse with  Garnet  who you get along with well, how on Earth was I to think that you wanted  to fuse with  _ me  _ when all we seem to do is argue?” She sighs deeply, looking as if  she thought that the fault lied within herself. “Why would you even want to?”

The green gem gulps down a lump of unneeded air. Not for the first time Peridot wishes she were more like Steven and able to articulate what she felt with words. It would make so many of her interpersonal relationships easier to navigate. Steven says that giving someone a piece of yourself is a good way to make them understand you better. She assumes he mean metaphorically. 

“Pearl... I’m not ‘good’ at a lot more than just singing and dancing.” She uses the air quotes again because she likes the clear emphasis they provide. Peridot stands before the gem currently sitting on the floor, feeling oddly vulnerable. Like this, she’s a little taller than Pearl which makes it much easier to lay a tiny hand on her cheek and prompt her gaze to meet her own. “I realize that I’m not the easiest gem to get along with and it’s apparent that I have a lot to learn about being a crystal gem. Everything happens so much on Earth, it’s frustrating and it feels like I’m always fighting something or someone to get it right. But dancing with you didn’t — It doesn’t feel like fighting. It doesn’t feel like a struggle. It’s probably the easiest thing I’ve done since getting on Earth. It feels like us, it feels….bright? We feel bright together and I thought maybe it felt bright to you too? Does that make any sense?”

She implores Pearl to understand with her eyes, she needs her to understand that to her what they shared, how easy it was to just be herself around her, was more precious than any Diamond could hope to be. 

“Oh Peridot.” Pearl’s lip wobbles not unattractively as she lays a matching hand on her cheek.  Peridot is sure they look like a pair of morons holding on to each others faces in the middle of the living room, just staring at eachother. “Please stop using air quotes for everything, it’s tacky.” She says with a watery smile and the green gem can’t help the grin that take over her face. Peridot snickers and rubs a tiny thumb over one of the tears that begins to drip over the curve of Pearl’s cheek. “Only if you stop crying and singing everywhere. Clod.”

Pearl’s response is to mirror her actions, edging a thin finger under the rim off her visor to smudge at a rouge tear.  Oh great she was leaking too. “Look who’s talking twerp.” 

Pearl gets it, gets the brightness that shines between them. She gets her.

“You two have the weirdest relationship.” Lapis announces dryly from the door frame. “And that means something coming from me.”

“Nice to see you too Lazuli.” Peridot mutters under her breath. Pearl cuts back a giggle.

“More flirting. Great.” Lazuli makes a face that says she doesn’t quite know how to take the moment between them and really doesn’t want to extend the effort to figure it out. “Steven says if you’re done being cranky you’re allowed to come back to the barn but I can see you’re busy with...this.”

Peridot the is ready to bite some comment back at her but Pearl beats her to it. “We are. Thank you for the message Lapis. Have a safe trip back to the barn.” Both homeworld gems are surprised by her dismissive tone but while Lazuli just stares in disbelief, Peridot starts laughing hysterically.

“You just got told to buzz off. By Pearl!” She squeaks out, holding her stomach as the waves of laughter roll out of her tiny body. Pearl chooses to take this as a compliment and preens prettily at her side.

Lapis curls her lip in distaste. “Ugh, you two just bring out the worst in each other.” She sends both gems a long suffering look before heading out of the house, presumably to go back to the barn.

“Yikes.” Peridot manages to say once her laughter has subsided.

Pearl nods in agreement. “Can you imagine how irritated she’s going to be when we actually fuse?” She has a certain appreciation for how their conversation has come full circle. “She will not be pleased with us.” Wordlessly Peridot helps Pearl to her feet and watches as she swats away imaginary dust from her shorts. 

“Lazuli isn’t pleased with most things.” Subtly, or a least what she hopes is subtly, Peridot gives her companion a coy look. “So…. you  _ do  _ want to fuse with me?” It can’t be that easy.

Pearl adjusts her midsection ornamentation and Peridot very unsubtly follows the movement with rapt attention.Very good Dot, very hard to get.“If you’ll have me, I’d love to fuse with you Peridot.  As much as a bright disaster as it’s going to be.” Pearl smiles as she says it and Peridot’s, unnecessary, heart does that tingly sensation again.

It probably is going to be a disaster but somehow she’s filled with a bubbly anticipation and excitement, the kind that makes her feel as if her gem was too bright for her form to contain. Peridot can’t imagine that any Diamond could ever feel a fraction of the hope she feels for what is by all means a very uncertain future.

“Yeah, okay. Let's do it.” Somehow it really is that easy.

With a flick of herwrist Pearl turns on the radiowave converter audio box and returns to her unfinished dishes, as if they hadn’t had a near heart to heart about the merits of literally becoming a single person; because of course Pearl does. “Want to help me finish these first?”

And to the surprise of absolutely one, Peridot finds herself sitting on the countertop drying dishes at her side as they sing along to whatever hyperbolic human music plays over the radio.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> So obviously Rihanna's Diamonds was the inspiration for this but in a strange way so was my last Pearlidot fic 'Home Shopping' because it followed the same idea of 'hey how would the gems react to how humans react to actual gems???' and it all spiraled out of control.
> 
> I struggled with this fic for a really long time because I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be a humorous fic or an emotional fic or whatever else. Ultimately I decided that it's charm would probably be that its apologetically both. I really liked how it the shift in the tone of the relationship between Pearl and Peridot went from trying to be the person they think the other one wants them to be to them just being themselves even if it's imperfect and sort of antagonistic toward each other. 
> 
> ANY WAYS thanks for staying with me until the end of this glorified song fic.


End file.
